LiveSlides elements allow you to showcase a carousel of images in your email campaigns that can be personalized and optimized for iOS by adding unique clickthrough URLs for each.
Examples are product offerings, promotions.
With LiveSlides you typically want to track clicks and conversions
In this topic, we will discuss the different configuration options specific for the LiveSlides as well as the preview and embed codes. Check out the topic Create a new campaign first for more information on how to initially create a campaign.
Once your campaign has been created including the LiveSlides element, a series of steps need to be followed:
2. Preview and test the LiveSlides
Configure the LiveSlides
Configure basic settings
The settings configured in the Basic Settings section apply to all the different variants of the element, if these exist.
Linking — In the basic settings you define if a clickthrough URL is required or only the embedded image, without the possibility to click through. If you choose the option to add a clickthrough URL, you will have to define the url in the configuration of the element further down.
iOS optimization — Choose whether you want to use iOS Optimization on your LiveSlides. iOS Optimization allows you to add different clickthrough links for the individual slides and deliver content faster to iOS email clients.
Alt text — This is the text that will be displayed when the image cannot be rendered. It is recommended to always set an alt text in case openers have disabled image rendering in their email clients or for openers that use screen readers. The alt text is appended to the embed code of the element.
Click Save and Next, to continue to the next step: the configuration of the elements.
Further configuration of LiveSlides
When a LiveSlides campaign is created, there is always a default LiveSlides element that will be the fallback image when the targeting rules do not apply to the opener of the email or when no targeting rules have been defined.
Start by configuring the default LiveSlides.
1. The first step is defining the dimensions of this element. Enter the width and height of your LiveSlides element, or leave the default settings. This option is only available when iOS optimization is not activated for the element.
2. Then decide what the Slide Duration is, expressed in seconds. This defines how long each slide will be displayed.
3. Set the transition speed. You can choose from Slow, Normal or Fast, impacting the speed at which one slide moves to the next.
4. Choose how the slides will transition. Possible transition type options depend on some of the other settings:
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When iOS optimization is off: Basic, slide left to right, slide right to left, slide top to bottom, slide bottom to top and fade-out.
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When iOS optimization is on: Basic and fade-out. The reason the other options are no longer available is to make sure the LiveSlides element performs well.
Note: If you are using the option to add personalization text to the image, the options Transition speed and Transition type are no longer available and only the Basic transition type is supported. Reason for this is to ensure the file does not get too big, ideally it should be around 10MB but we can support up to 20MB.
5. In the next step, you need to upload the images used for the slides. You can upload up to 5 images.
Note 1: If the images used are different sizes than the dimensions of the slide show, Liveclicker will automatically resize them to fit the chosen dimensions.
Note 2: Animated GIFs are not supported as an asset for the LiveSlides as this might cause the element not to render properly.
6. For each of the uploaded images, enter a name.
7. Define a clickthrough URL. This URL is the same for all the images in the slideshow, unless you have activated the option for iOS optimization. In this case, you can set a different URL for each image.
Note: You can use a regular clickthrough link or a mobile deeplink. Mobile deeplinks are URLs that the mobile device will interpret as an instruction to open the app if it is installed, and go to a specific location in the app. If the app does not exist, in general it will take the opener to the location where the app can be downloaded.
Note 2: Clickthrough URLs can be personalized with ESP tags. Please check out our dedicated topic on this subject if this is something you consider doing.
8. If desired, you can add a personalized text to the image. Toggle the option On if you wish to do so:
Select a Custom field from the drop-down. This field can be used to personalize the personalization text below.
Enter the personalization text in the dedicated field at the bottom of the personalization section.
You can customize the text with the information stored in the Custom field. To do so, you need to use the following syntax in your personalized text: %%tag%%. This tag will then be replaced with the ESP tag for the Custom field, as defined in the Account Settings.
You can change the font settings, alignment, position, orientation, letter spacing and character limit of the text. The character limit determines when the fallback image is displayed when the personalization text exceeds this limit.
9. Next, whenever personalization is added, a Personalization Fallback image needs to be uploaded. This image is served when the personalization field in the personalized text cannot be retrieved. This fallback only needs to be defined in case personalization is used.
10. Last, a Fallback Image together with a fallback clickthrough URL needs to be defined in case the opener's email client cannot render the LiveSlide.
11. A preview of the LiveSlides element is displayed. If you chose to use iOS optimization, there are additional configuration to define the clickthrough URL used for non iOS devices.
Now you have finished the configuration of your first LiveSlides.
At this point you can either add an alternative version of the LiveSlides or move on to the targeting and testing section.
An alternative version can be used when targeting rules are implemented, presenting some of the viewers with one version, and others with another version.
11. If you want to do this, click the button Add Alternate LiveSlides and repeat the configuration steps as for the default LiveSlide.
Note:
Every alternate version of the LiveSlides element must have the same dimensions. This also includes the fallback image.
As a result it is not possible to set a targeting rule where nothing will be displayed.
12. When done, click Save and Next to set up the targeting rules.
Define targeting rules and AB tests
1. In this last step, you can decide which subscriber should get a specific version of the LiveSlides through the use of targeting rules. A targeting rule will split up the audience and only target a segment of the audience with a specific version. There are 2 options:
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Define targeting rules from scratch.
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When you have already defined targeting rules for a different element in this campaign, you can re-use these targeting rules for the current element.
For more details on setting up targeting rules, please check out the dedicated topic.
2. In addition, you can also set up AB testing for this element. With A/B testing the final version of the LiveSlides shown to the remainder of the audience, is determined by the A/B test.
3. When done, click Continue. You are taken to the next element to configure, if any. Otherwise, you are taken to the Preview.
Preview and test the LiveSlides
The Preview tab for your campaign becomes available when all elements in your campaign have been configured. It provides you with the ability to test the look and rendering of the elements in your campaign, either as a static preview or as a dynamic preview, simulating an opener. You can also send yourself or others an email preview.
For more details on how to test your elements using preview, please read the corresponding topic.
Retrieve the Embed Codes
In this last step, you need to provide some estimated campaign details, such as expected opens, launch date and Expiration date, as well as the Subscriber ID field.
All this information will be used by Liveclicker to optimize resources but also to create the embed code.
For more details on the Embed codes, check out this topic.
